By Ryan Stonebraker
Sports Editor
MARSHALLTOWN — Dreams were realized last Saturday as a quartet of Tipton swimmers who have been swimming together since elementary school, broke an 11-year school record on a day that saw a Tipton event at the state swimming meet for the first time in ten years. There, the relay team of Ali Anderson, Britney Ford, Maddie Swick and Zoe Stonebraker competed in the 200-yard medley relay event. They cruised to a season best time of 1:54.67. It was one of two state events Tipton qualified for at this year’s state meet. The Tigers are the smallest school in the entire state to field a girl’s swimming team. Swimming in not classed and is mainly a large school sport.
Ames also won the state title for the fourth straight season, scoring 372 points at the state meet and winning five events. The Little Cyclones won their eighth state title in the last nine seasons too. Dowling Catholic placed second, 53 points behind Ames with 319 points. Bettendorf was third with 194 points.
“It was all determination. We have worked for this. It came down to that .5 seconds that we needed to drop in our starts and turns and we did it,” said THS junior Ali Anderson who led off the race.
The Tigers recorded their best time of the season in the event at home in a meet against Davenport North in 2:01.0 on September 27. The relay swam to a time of 1:56.98 at the Linn-Mar Regional on October 27 and then swam to a time of 1:54.67 at state.
Stonebraker, the team’s MVP as a freshman last year reached state competition last spring on the Tigers track team.
“From the minute I touched the wall it was insane. I looked over and my teammates were celebrating. It was surreal to realize that all we have worked for, finally paid off,” said Stonebraker.
“We have been swimming together for a long time. It’s an awesome feeling. From swimming 25-yard races as eight-year olds and now breaking a 10-year school record at state,” she said.
The quartet has been together since for years swimming on winter club teams with the longest being as members of the Stoney Point Stingray club in Cedar Rapids. Dozens weekly trips to Cedar Rapids turned into practicing here in Tipton under the tutelage of coaches Jeff McKinney and Adam Calonder. Meets every Saturday around Eastern Iowa gave way to seeing their seasons end most years at Regional swimming meets in Minnesota, even a few of thost Regional meets held at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis.
“I told them before the race that we deserve to be here. We already proved we belong here. Now, we need to prove to ourselves that we can do our best. We were here for us today. Our goal was to touch the wall and get the school record and we smashed it,” said Tipton swimming coach Whitney Gehrs.
The Tigers new school record broke the previous school record set at the 2007 state meet. The team of Amanda Gavin, Mackenzie Moritz, Alex Proctor and Alicia Goetz placed 17th at that state meet in a time of 1:55.51. Proctor was a senior on that team and now coaches is an assistant coach on for the Tigers. Goetz and Gavin were juniors on that team and Moritz was a freshman. The Tigers last trip to state was the next year in 2008. The Tiger relay team of freshman Kaitlyn McKinney and then sophomore Mortiz, joined seniors Goes and Gavin to place 21st in 1:58.54.
The medley relay team was made up of two juniors and two sophomores. Juniors Ali Anderson and Britney Ford were the lead-off and second leg with backstroke and breaststroke, while sophomore Maddie Swick was third with the butterfly and Zoe Stonebraker anchored in the freestyle.
The Tigers got off to a great start with Anderson and it carried over until Stonebraker touched the wall on the anchor freestyle leg. The split times for each in the relay were Anderson 29.55, Ford 31.85, Swick 27.51 and Stonebraker 25.76. Anderson led off the relay all season and Stonebraker was the anchor leg in half of the 12 races in the regular season. Ford and Swick have been dominant in the breaststroke and butterfly this year.
“It is amazing. We have been looking at this record on the board in the cafeteria since freshman year. Definately kept it in our mind this year,” said Tipton junior Britney Ford. Ford set a personal best split time in the race.
“I finally got under 32 and that is the fastest split I have ever had. It’s great to know that now, when we walk into the lunch room, our names are there. We did it, and to know we have another year together, we want to break it (record) again,” she said.
Swick swam the third leg of the race, and hit the pool with the Tigers in the lead.
“I wanted to swim my hardest and do my best for the team,” said THS sophomore Maddie Swick.
“Our main goal this year was to break the recorded. It motivated us to do better here at state,” she said.
The Medley Relay is made up of four legs with each stroke 50-yards in distance. This season, Anderson and Stonebraker recorded the top-2 50-yard freestyle times of 26.51 and 27.22. Swick held the top 100-yard backstroke time of 1:07.22, but was already in the relay with the butterfly leg. The backstroke leg fell to Anderson who had the second fastest time in the 100-yard backstroke at 1:07.84 joining Swick as the only two Tigers to swim the event this season under 1:10. The breast stroke was handled by Britney Ford. Ford has the best time in the event this season at 100-yards at 1:12.59 and is unbeaten in the event in ten duals that Tipton swam at this season. Swick swam the butterfly and had the second fastest time in the butterfly this season at 1:04.23. The freestyle leg was anchored by Stonebraker who had the fastest 100-yard freestyle time this season at 58.91.
Tipton’s heat consisted of Des Moines Roosevelt, Decorah, Cedar Rapids Jefferson, Sioux City Metro, Dubuque Hempstead, Vinton-Shellsburg, and Indianola. The Tigers were the highest placing team out of the first heat of four in the event. Tipton placed 20th followed by Dubuque Hempstead 24th, Cedar Rapids Jefferson 25th, Sioux City Metro 26th, Decorah 28th, Vinton-Shellsburg 29th, Indianola 30th and Des Moines Roosevelt 31st. Of those, three schools had medley relays at state last year - Hempstead, Jefferson and Indianola - and had two returning swimmings back from their state teams.
Dowling Catholic won the event in a time of 1:42.0 with the team of Katie Broderick, Mary Martin, Berit Quass, and Mary Sweetman. Martin and Sweetman were freshmen on last year’s team while Broderick and Quass were sophomores that placed second. The time that Tipton swam to, 1:54.67 would have placed 22nd at last year’s meet.
State Meet Results:
200-yard freestyle relay: 1. Dowling Catholic (Katie Broderick, Mary Martin, Berit Quass, Mary Sweetman) 1:42.0, 2. Ames (Abby Hala, Molly Winer, Annie Galvin, Meghan Donald) 1:44.31, 3. Iowa City, City High (Carly Weigel, Olivia Masterson, Trinity Sadecky, Rika Yahashiri) 1:46.52, 4. Ankeny 1:48.91, 5. Pleasant Valley 1;48.92, 6. West Des Moines Valley 1:49.20, 7. Des Moines Lincoln 1:49.46, 8. Council Bluffs Lewis Central 1:49.64, 9. Dubuque Wahlert 1:49.68, 10. Waukee 1:49.94, 15. Carroll 1:53.27, 20. Tipton (Ali Anderson, Britney Ford, Maddie Swick, Zoe Stonebraker) 1:54.67, 21. Johnston 1:54.69, 22. Mason City 1:54.79, 23. Boone 1:54.94, 24. Dubuque Hempstead 1:55.49, 25. Cedar Rapids Jefferson 1:55.74, 26. Sioux City Metro 1:55.75, 27. Davenport Central 1:56.26, 28. Decorah 1:57.41, 29. Vinton-Shellsburg 1:57.45, 30. Indianola 1:57.80, 31. Des Moines Roosevelt 1:58.57. DQ - Bettendorf.
2018 Tipton 200-yard Medley Relay Results
August 2018
Clinton Duals (August 23) - 1st - Anderson, Ford, Swick, Hoefler - 2:01.90
Williamsburg (August 27) - 1st - Anderson, Ford, Hoefler, Stonebraker - 2:01.15
September 2018
Muskie Invitational (September 1) - 2nd - Anderson, Ford, Hoefler, Stonebraker - 2:03.66
Williamsburg Duals (September 10) - 1st - Anderson, Ford, Swick, Stonebraker - 2:01.39
Linn-Mar (September 13) - 1st - Anderson, Ford, Swick, Hoefler - 2:04.63
Davenport Central (September 17) - 2nd - Anderson, Ford, Swick, Hoefler - 2:02.15
Fairfield (September 24) - 1st - Anderson, Ford, Swick, Hoefler - 2:03.82
Davenport North (September 27) - 1st - Anderson, Ford, Swick, Hoefler - 2:01.0
October 2018
Cedar Rapids Washington (October 6) - 1st - Anderson, Ford, Swick, Stonebraker - 2:01.12
Williamsburg (October 8) - 1st - Sara Webb, Liz Bierman, Artica Dykstra, Corrine VanderGaast - 2:18.17.
Fairfield (October 15) - 1st - Anderson, Ford, Swick, Stonebraker - 2:01.03.
Regionals - Linn-Mar (October 27) - 7th - Anderson, Ford, Swick, Stonebraker - 1:56.08
November 2018
State Meet - Marshalltown (November 3) - 20th - Anderson, Ford, Swick, Stonebraker - 1:54.67.
Best Times This Year - 50-yard freestyle 1. Ali Anderson - 27.05, 2. Zoe Stonebraker 27.22.
Backstroke - 1. Maddie Swick - 1:07.22 - already in the relay - in the butterfly; 2. Ali - 1:07.84 - only two on the team under 1;10 in the event.
Breaststroke - 1:12-something from Regionals - Britney Ford; just under 7 seconds ahead of second placed Liz Bierman - 1:21.88.
Butterfly - Swick - second on team - 1:04.23 in the 100-yard butterfly - Hoefler - first - 1:03.99State Times - 1. Anderson (Backstroke) 29.55, 2. Ford (breaststroke) 31.85, 3. Swick (butterfly) 27.51, 4. Zoe Stonebraker (freestyle) 25.76
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